A routine bottle-of-water run to Walmart is getting attention online after a shopper says a self-checkout machine addressed her by name. The machine also referenced her phone number, despite her declining to provide it during the transaction.
The shopper, who posts under the name Maya, described the alleged encounter in a TikTok video. According to her account, she walked into the store without her phone out, picked up a bottle of water, and headed to a self-checkout kiosk.
“When I got to the self-checkout they said, do you want to put your phone number in to get a mobile receipt?” Maya said. “And I said, no. I clicked no. And then they said, okay. And so I said, okay.”
Maya says the screen showed her name and number
The transaction was approved, and Maya says she expected a printed receipt. Instead, she says the screen displayed a message with her name and phone number. “It said on the screen, Thanks Maya, we’ll send you a receipt to your phone number ending in these digits,” she recounted.
Maya says she never entered her name, phone number, or any other identifying details during that visit. She couldn’t figure out how the machine appeared to know who she was.
@maya_maybee Cool cool cool #walmart #surveillance #fyp #privacy #groceryshopping
♬ original sound – Maya
“I thought I told you, no, I don’t want one, I didn’t enter my phone number, but you’re just like, you just know who I am,” she said. “You just know who I am. You’re greeting me by name when I didn’t give you any indication of who I am.”
Maya’s video doesn’t show the checkout screen, and she doesn’t say how she paid or whether she had previously connected that card to a Walmart account, Walmart Pay, or mobile receipts. So it’s unclear how the machine knew her name and phone number. Her alleged experience isn’t the first time shoppers have wondered how much information a self-checkout system can access about them.
The comments section leaned heavily toward one explanation, with several viewers pointing to the payment card itself as the likely link.
“You paid with your card. Which I would almost guarantee you have saved in your app and/or have used it to order from Walmart in the past,” one commenter wrote in a response that picked up close to 300 likes.
Another commenter was more unsettled by the idea itself. “Shopify does the same thing. It’s creepy af,” they wrote.
A third commenter took a more practical view. “Did you pay with cash or credit/debit? If with a card, that may be how they got your name.”
Several commenters suspected Maya’s payment card was what connected the purchase to her information. Whether that was the case remains unclear, but her experience isn’t the only one to raise questions about how Walmart can link a purchase back to a shopper without asking for a phone number at checkout.
